What Approvals Are Available to Parents for Additional Occupational Support (AOS)?
The coffee ring on my stack of IEP paperwork was starting to bleed through the bottom page when Leo crumpled his half-cut paper dinosaur and threw it onto the table. “It’s too hard,” he mumbled, shoving the scissors away. It was 7 pm on a Tuesday, and I’d just gotten my third request for additional documentation to get Leo approved for Additional Occupational Support, or AOS, through our public school. I’d spent the previous six weeks jumping through hoops, and I found myself typing the same question into Google that so many other parents I know have asked: are there even any actual approvals for parents seeking AOS, or is this just a game no one wins?
Leo is 8, in second grade. He’s always had trouble with fine motor skills—holding a pencil, buttoning his uniform shirt, opening his milk carton at lunch. By the middle of first grade, his teacher pulled me aside and said his avoidance of writing was starting to make him fall behind, even though he tested well above grade level for reading and comprehension. Our private OT suggested he’d benefit from twice-weekly 30-minute AOS sessions at school to build skills in his daily routine, something we couldn’t afford to keep doing privately long-term. That’s when we started the approval process.
My first mistake was starting at the wrong place. I saw a link on the district website for “parent service requests” and filled it out there, crossed my fingers, and waited. Four weeks later, I got a generic email back saying the request had been routed to the wrong department, and I needed to start over. I called my friend Lila, whose 10-year-old uses AOS for sensory processing issues, and she laughed that hollow laugh all parents of kids needing extra support know. “I did the same thing,” she said. “AOS approvals don’t start at the district office. They start with your kid’s existing team.”
That’s the first thing no one tells you when you start out. AOS is recognized as a related service under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which means most public schools have a formal approval process built into IEP and 504 plans. If your kid already has an IEP, you don’t need to fill out a dozen random forms on a website. All you have to do is send a short email to your child’s case manager asking to add AOS to your child’s plan and schedule an evaluation for approval. Save a copy of that email, by the way—districts are required to respond within a set timeline, and having a paper trail keeps everyone honest.
I did that, and got a meeting with the team two weeks later. I’d already paid for a private evaluation out of pocket before I learned that the district is required to provide a free evaluation for AOS approval if you request it through the IEP process. That’s another big, under-shared detail—so many parents assume they have to front the cost of testing to get approval, but that’s almost never the case. If I’d known that earlier, I could have saved the $400 I spent on that first report for co-pays for future sessions.
When I walked into the meeting, I had the clinical evaluation, but I also tucked three small, specific notes I’d jotted down over the previous month into the front of my folder: 1. Leo’s hand cramps after 10 minutes of writing, so he only completes half his homework even when he knows the material. 2. He can’t open his own lunch box by the end of the school day, so he often doesn’t finish his snack even though he’s hungry. 3. He avoids art class because he can’t cut out shapes, which means he’s missing out on social time with his friends after lunch. The evaluation said all the right things, but those three short notes were what made the whole team nod during the meeting. Approval boards don’t just need to see a diagnosis or a generic recommendation—they need to see how the lack of AOS impacts your kid’s daily school life, and that specific context is what moves most requests from “pending” to “approved.”
I also learned quickly that if your kid doesn’t qualify for an IEP or your school denies the request, there are other approvals for parents outside of the school system. Most state education departments have small, under-advertised grants that cover part or all of the cost of private AOS for families who don’t get school-based approval. I found one through our state’s parent training and information center, which helps families walk through the application process for free. If you don’t know where to look, your local parent advocacy group can point you to the right program in 10 minutes.
We got our approval three weeks ago. They only approved one session a week instead of the two the OT recommended, so we’re in the early stages of appealing that decision. It’s not perfect, and I still spend evenings sorting through paperwork when I’d rather be reading Leo a bedtime story. But Leo came home yesterday with a paper dinosaur he cut out all by himself, smooth edges and everything, taped to the fridge. He’s proud, and that’s more than we had two months ago. The process is messy, and there’s no guarantee of getting exactly what you ask for the first time around. But there are approvals available for parents who know where to start asking. Right now, one session a week is enough to help him feel a little more capable every day, and that’s enough for us.
Please indicate: Thinking In Educating » What Approvals Are Available to Parents for Additional Occupational Support (AOS)